Thanks for stopping by. This is where I publish a lot of my features and thoughts on HF propagation, antennas and other ham radio topics. I write for a number of radio magazines, including the RSGB's RadCom and ARRL's QST. I am also chairman of the RSGB's Propagation Studies Committee and produce the weekly HF propagation report for GB2RS. When not playing radio I'm a professional journalist specialising in aerospace, science and technology and am also author of four RSGB books.

Thursday, 3 May 2012

Solar conditions continue to look dismal, although the solar flux did get up to 149 on 21st April. This coincided with our entry for GB0CMS on International Marconi Day. And yes, you could see the bands hopping with contacts into Barbados and central Australia.

But now the SFI is down to 100-120 again.

Cheer up though - May marks the start of the Sporadic E season in the Northern Hemisphere so 28MHz and 50MHz will be humming at times.

This rather suggests that F layer propagation on 28MHz is non-existent. Not so - the 706T DXpedition to Yemen has been romping in to the UK on 10m CW for large portions of the day. Not terribly loud, but definitely workable once the pileups dry up a bit.